Congress to Discuss Geolocation Privacy, Surveillance

GPS Act would require law enforcement officials to get a warrant before taking location data from a suspect’s device.

GPS privacy law will soon be updated if Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, get their way. The bill, called the Geolocation Privacy and Surveillance (GPS) Act, was introduced last year and would require law enforcement officials to get a warrant before taking location data from a suspect’s device.

"Because the law has not kept up with the pace of innovation, it makes sense to include the GPS Act’s requirement that law enforcement obtain a warrant for GPS tracking in the Cybersecurity Act. This will protect Americans’ location information from misuse," Wyden said in a statement. "Part of the goal of the cybersecurity legislation is to update rules for information collection and privacy for the digital age, which is what the GPS Act is all about.”

Earlier this year, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that law enforcement officials must get a warrant before attaching a GPS device to someone’s car. The ruling was part of an update of legislation that had not been touched since the 1970s, and was seen by some as a much-needed revision, though the law did not mention GPS tracking by means of mobile phone or computer. Wyden’s GPS Act is meant to address that gap.

Wyden has repeatedly called for a “digital bill of rights” to keep laws up-to-date with the fast changing world of technology. Congress will probably discuss the GPS Act this week.